Plato to Hermes
by IndigoWinter
Summary: Let it never be said that MiM doesn't work in mysterious ways. Like, for example, taking someone from our world, throwing them in a century or two earlier than what they're used to, and turning them immortal. Oh, and making them responsible for loving every single person on the planet, including a certain King of Nightmares. Yeah. No Pressure. Set Before, During, and After ROTG. SI


Plato to Hermes

Chapter 01: You'll Poke Yer Eye Out

* * *

I opened my eyes to a splitting headache, a face full of grass, and the taste of pine dust in my mouth.

Of course, being of the usual persuasion that _did not_, in fact, spend their nights on the filthy ground, I found these facts startlingly out of place.

With what was surly too much effort and a low, wining groan, I dug my finger nails into the dirt and sat up, partially supported by my elbows. Some of my joints _cracked_ unpleasantly at the motion. My neck felt too weak to support my head. A strange numbness dominated most of my limbs. Blurrily, I looked down at myself, barely taking in the sight of my bare feet and nightgown. I wiggled and flexed my toes- still painted partially blue from a sleepover a week ago- allowing my senses to slowly return to me.

"W-Where…?" I coughed as soon as the words left my mouth. My throat was dryer than the Sierra and I sounded like a pack-a-day smoker. Ugh. What the heck?

Carefully, I massaged my neck and looked around, a majority of the sleep left in my eyes fading the more I blinked.

I was in the woods.

…

Why was I in the woods?

Last time I checked, there were no woods in my bedroom, where I distinctly remembered going to sleep in. And no, the little bonsai tree I'd gotten from my cousin did not count. So…

"Where a-am I?" Again, my words sounded like they'd been fed through a cheese grater.

There were trees all around me, most brilliant shades of brown, orange, and forest green. Which- _wait what?_

It was suppose to be mid winter. Yesterday I'd had to shovel the driveway and wear my Eskimo coat on my walk home from school. It had _not_ been pleasantly autumn.

I shut my eyes. I counted to ten. I took deep breaths.

And then screamed as loud and as hard as my hoarse throat would allow. Birds all around erupted into the night sky.

_Ohchristchristchrist_- what was going on? H-Had I been kidnapped? Was I hurt? Where were my parents? Hell, were was _I_? My whole body shook and I pulled my legs to my chest, burying my face into my knees. I laced my fingers over my shins and took several tight, shaky breaths. I still ached all over, but the discomfort didn't even register.

Okay.

Okay.

What was the last thing I remembered? Going to bed. I'd finished last minute psych homework, and gone to bed after my dad. That was it. I'd gone to bed, and woke up in some woods somewhere- somewhere not near home, because everywhere around my town had been cloaked in snow.

I had to have been kidnapped. Maybe drugged? That would explain the weird numbness. My heart stopped for a full beat. I didn't feel…_violated_, in any way, and I was still alive…so…I'd been kidnapped and then dumped in the woods. By who? Or better yet, _why_?

"Oh my god," I whispered, clutching my fingers to the point they turned white.

I needed to get help, then. I needed to find police, or a phone, and call home. In Girl Scouts, they always said to stay put when you were lost, but waiting for my kidnappers to return or get eaten by bears wasn't really appealing at the moment, so I stood. My knees wobbled like I was some eighty year-old woman, by I managed.

I grimaced at the sight of my shoeless feet, knowing a hike was not going to be a comfortable experience, but sighed. What doesn't kill ya, am I right?

I chose a random direction using the universal default decision-making tool of eeny-meeny-miny-moe (because acting your age is pointless when there's no one around to see you), and set off.

Or I would have, if I hadn't instantly stepped on something and hissed in pain.

I looked down, and picked up the object of my discomfort. It was bow. And a _crappy_ looking one at that. It was made from splintered wood and rusted metal, and lacked a string. It looked vaguely engraved, but was so worn down I couldn't tell what they had been. I wondered if I could get Tetanus just my holding the thing.

"_You lousy piece of_- ugh. Okay. Safety and answers first, rage against inanimate objects later," I grunted, and tucked the thing under my arm from some reason I can't explain. I'd throw it away property so no one else would suffer at its mildly painful wrath once I was someplace civilized. Priorities, people. I got 'em.

So I walked. I don't know for how long, but long enough to get we worried. I couldn't hear any cars. I mean, where in American couldn't you at least hear the hustle and bustle of an engine? And the forest seemed too…natural. Like, there wasn't a sign that anyone had been through it before me. Very…untouched. Very…weird. Luckily, the moon was full and bright- the only thing lighting my way through the flora. Oddly enough, I wasn't scared of the dark. Despite my circumstance, I felt strangely safe whenever I glanced up at that big crater in the sky. Like it was watching me. You know, in a less creepy, un-stalker-ish way than how that just sounded.

Eventually, I heard the sound of people in the distance, along with the crackle of a fire. My heart leap in my chest and I let out a sigh of relief. Campers. _Finally_, someone who could help.

I picked up pace, ignoring the sticks and stones that jabbed into my heels as I trotted over them. I got closer, stepped out from behind the trees and saw…

And saw…

I don't know what I saw. Definitely _not_ people camping, though.

I was a village. And not one of those quiet, post-modern ones you find in Europe or Amish country. The houses were little more than log cabins, with spotty stone work and rough, shingled roofing. There was a tiny fenced-in area containing some chickens and a cow. Everything had this…_unsanitary_ look about it that made my skin crawl. There was crackling bonfire in the center of it all, near a well.

And the people? Well, the people looked like something straight out of a colonial reenactment. They reminded of the pictures I'd seen in my US History textbook. Also: very unsanitary looking.

I gulped. "Ah, hello?"

I took a tentative step toward everything, clutching the ratty bow in my hands like a security blanket.

"Excuse me? Um, can I please use someone's phone?" I tried to catch someone's eye, but no one seemed to want to give me the time of day. "Okay, if you're all trying to not break character here, I get it. Admire that. But I'm in some serious trouble."

Again, no one looked my way. I scowled. Alright then. Manners were for the weak, anyway.

I spotted a woman with bucket slung over her shoulder and moved in front of her path. "Look lady, I not in the mood for this. Hey! I'm trying to talk to-!"

And then she walked right through me.

She walked _through _me.

Like I…like I was just air.

Oh god.

Oh my god.

I coughed and sputtered and choked on air, trying to catch onto breath that was failing me. My blood ran cold like ice, and all feeling of color left my face. I heart stopped beating, sinking into my stomach like a rock. I couldn't think. My mind went blank, trying to process the impossible.

She just walked through me.

Like a ghost.

"Hey! _Somebody!_" I went up to an old man and tried to grab his shoulders, but my hands just sunk past him. "Will someone-?" I tried a little kid, but he walked through my legs without the slightest bit of resistance. No one saw me. They looked through me- _past_ me.

"Anyone…?"

I tripped over my own feet, scrambling backwards from the people, the village, the fire, retreating into the trees, my heartbeat rushing in my ears. I was terrified. I was more scared than I'd ever been in my entire life.

And not just because of my lacking solidity. No. _No_, I was scared beyond belief because this was _familiar_. I'd seen someone walking into a village and being passed through like a wisp of air before- though they hadn't been _real_. They hadn't _supposed_ to have been real. But…

But this felt all too real to be dream.

Dear god, did it feel too real to be a dream.

"Wake up, wake up," I clenched my hair and tugged slightly, burying my face in my arms, back slamming into a tree for support. "Wake up, wake up, _wake up_…"

I'd seen it happen in a movie. I'd read about it in some books. But that's all that it was supposed to be: in books and movies. Not real, and certainly not happening to me. The _implications_- I-I didn't want to let myself think about them.

I sunk down to the ground, still against the tree, strangely uncomfortable but too horrified to venture why, and let myself cry. I was a fully grown seventeen year-old, and I balled my eyes out. Tears and snot and shakes wracked my body for what seemed like ages. I had my legs together and the bow still in my hands, pressed tightly to my chest. I wanted my dad. I wanted my mom. I wanted to go home, and I wanted everything to stop being impossible and go back to being normal, boring, and safe.

I cried until I was too tired to cry anymore, or maybe it was until I ran out of tears, but I eventually drifted into blissful sleep, barely noticing the warmth generated from the splintered weapon in my hands.

* * *

When I opened my eyes again, or a brief moment, I thought the night before had been a horrible nightmare. But then I felt my stiff discomfort from falling asleep against a tree truck, and bitterly smiled at the truth of it all.

I…was crazy. I had to be. I was crazy, and was now somehow in a fictitious world secretly inhabited by _mostly_ invisible festive spirits.

I got up and stretched, absently noticing I'd held onto the bow the entire night. I thought about tossing it away, but couldn't quite bring myself to do it. It seemed less rusty than before. And the carvings looked a little less worn, when I took a good look at it.

On a hopeless whim, I reentered the village, dragging my feet, and stood in front of the first man I saw, who was carrying lumber.

He passed through me like all the others.

I laughed. I laughed hard and long, like some sort of animal, and wiped away moisture gathering around my eyes, before tucking a stray bit of brown hair behind my ear. Yep, crazy. I was officially nuts.

And I was also at a loss. What was I suppose to do now?

"I don't suppose you're going to talk to me, are you?" I asked up at the sky, locking eyes with the barely visible moon. Unsurprisingly, I got nothing. "What? Not even a hint? Or a name?"

It barely shocked me that couldn't remember my own name. I was too drained to react. I remembered everything else about my life, but not my name. Sure. Why not? It wasn't like my life could get any worse at the moment.

"Thanks a load, you useless natural satellite."

I sighed, and sat on the edge of the well. People went about their business around me, some reaching through me to draw water, others tending to animals and manual labors. I tried listening to gossip, but that got boring fast without context. It occurred to me that I had no idea when I was. It also occurred to me that I didn't give to craps. Not at the moment, anyway.

"Maybe you can give me a hint, hmm?" I asked the bow, because talking to it was about as close to company as I was going to get- and no, I don't want to hear your opinion on that logic, thank you.

I examined it closer. It really _did_ look less trashy than yesterday. In fact, almost all the rust was gone from the metal grip, and the carvings looked kind of ornate/tribal-ish. I flipped it over, and caught sight of an engraving on the grip. The script was very swirly and neat, reminding me of calligraphy, reading: _Queue L. Amor. _

I snorted, getting it. There were even little hearts around it.

"Oh, _this is precious_," I smirked up at the moon, "You're joking. I mean, _seriously_? Cupid? Has your lack of gravity messed with your head? Oh wait, there's more-"

Past the name, there was the phrase: _To love all, no matter their actions or nature._

"Okay Manny, you got the wrong girl," I laughed, "I'm not cut out for whatever you're trying to pull. So just…magic me back home, okay? I won't tell a soul."

I waited in silence.

"Didn't think that would work," I mumbled. "What next, huh? Gunna give me wings? Put me in a diaper?"

I felt something odd twitch in my shoulder blade the instant the words left my mouth.

"Oh no."

I reached around my back and felt something feather-y graze my fingers.

"I was being rhetorical, you jerkwad!" I yelled at the sky- because who was going to care? Apparently, I was little more than a ghost, thanks to some stupid asshole in the sky, who just ripped me from my life and into the seventeen hundreds! (or earlier, for all I knew)

They weren't big wings, as far as I could tell, since I was lacking a mirror. The thought of flight excited me, sure, but I was determined to stay angry.

I was not going to be happy about any of this happening to me. I'd just sobbed a gallon of tears the night before, for corn's sake! There was no way I was getting excited about flying. Even if the idea sounded damn cool. And even if I'd always wanted to know what it was like to be Superman.

No. No way.

…

"…let it never be said my resolve isn't one of my weaknesses."

Turns out, figuring out the mechanics of my own flight wasn't difficult- but the wings themselves were largely cosmetic to the whole process. The Wind did most of the work. I just…willed myself to start flying; like how you will yourself to walk or write. It just happened. I rotated my shoulder blades first, getting a feel for my extra limbs (which felt very weird, let me tell you), and I was off. The wind caught beneath me and I screamed, soaring so fast that I forgot to breathe.

In an instant, I was off the ground and in the air, high above the trees and looking down. The only problem? I may or may not suffer from minor vertigo.

The Wind- and yes, Wind with a capitol 'w'- held me up as I had a panic attack mid-air. (It would be later that I learned all spirits relied largely on the Wind itself for flight. Without it, we'd drop like flies. As I said, my wings were pretty much cosmetic.) I flailed and took in huge gulps of air, hovering in place, my hands clutching my bow to the point my knuckles popped.

"I-I'm actually flying," I whispered, and then grinned. "I'm FLYING!"

I stayed in the air for hours- mostly testing my stopping and starting abilities (aka: crashing into a lot of things _totally_ on purpose), before coming to a wobbly landing outside my town.

"Alright- _awesome_. I'm still upset though," I added to the moon. I turned my bow over in my hands. "Now…what can you do?"

As I said before, the thing had no string. I gripped it like I'd seen in the movies, closing one eye and aimed at a woman nearby.

I reached my other hand back, as if drawing an imaginary string, and released an imaginary arrow at her.

And then it actually happened.

A bolt of scarlet grazed past my eye and shot toward her, erupting in an explosion of pink and red where it connected with her shoulder. I yelped and nearly threw the thing away.

"Holy-!"

The woman jumped slightly, her eyes widening a fraction, before something only akin to bliss covered her features. She dropped what she was doing and wrapped her arms around the little boy by her feet, covering him in kisses and a hug.

"_Mom_! Quit it!" The kid giggled and laughed, and the woman blew a raspberry on his cheek.

"And why would I do that? Can't I give my big boy some love?" she teased, spinning him in a circle.

"Oh boy," I chuckled softly. "...what the heck have I got myself into?"

Warmth filled my heart at the scene- an unnatural, completely undiluted sense of happiness filled my being. My skin tingled and I smiled despite myself, despite the fact that it reminded me of my own mother, and I let my arm fall uselessly to my side, content for a brief moment.

I knew little to nothing about what was going on. I didn't know how I got where I was or why. In fact, I'd love nothing more than to be back home. But…if staying here and figuring things out for a while meant making moments like that happen? Then…I could deal.

* * *

**REVISED! **Still have to double check for typos, but here ya go!

(A/N): Oh boy, am I nervous about this one. Just for some reference, my SI was made a spirit several years after Jack Frost. But I'll cover that next chapter. ALSO: She will be meeting Pitch and the Guardians and Jack all separately before I get into movie territory, and you can be assured that I have a reason why she's there in the first place. She isn't just there randomly. OH, AND THIS IS NOT AN SI/ANYONE FIC. THERE WILL BE NO PAIRINGS. Maybe a little teasing later, but that's it.

So...if you liked this, please freakin' tell me! It's true that reviews make updates come sooner!

Love ya,

Indigo


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